These days, with convenient hindsight we take it for granted that good music lasts, that pieces that are well known now will remain well known for years -- perhaps even for centuries to come. But I often wonder what was in the minds of the great composers of centuries past whose music we still love. Composers such as Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven knew very well how good they were, and where they stood compared to other composers. They were too good not to have known. And they certainly studied the music of great composers who had come before them, so they knew that great music didn’t just disappear with the deaths of those who had written it. But did it ever occur to Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven that their music would be played… forever? Did they hope for that? Dream of it? Could they even have conceived of the idea? I wonder.
This has been A Minute with Miles – a production of South Carolina Public Radio, made possible by the J.M. Smith Corporation.
